"As I said to you by phone today, I apologize and regret the statement I made to you in Fountain," Salazar wrote in a letter. "I also will be happy to speak with you officially on the BLM Wild Horse and Burro program."

Philipps wrote a story earlier this fall that probed how the Interior Department was handling wild horses on BLM lands. He asked Salazar, a Democrat, a question about it at an Election Day event supporting President Obama in Fountain and a wild horse advocate from the Colorado-based Cloud Foundation caught the exchange on video.